Alina (Cristina Flutur) is emotionally volatile and deeply infatuated with Voichita (Cosmina Stratan), who has joined an isolated, Orthodox monastery with about a dozen other nuns, working and praying under a charismatic priest.

Confused and angry, Alina repeatedly lashes out, leading the monastery's fervent believers to decide she has the devil in her. Their primitive, panicked attempts to "help" Alina lead to an absurd, excruciating spectacle straight out of the Salem witch trials.

The purpose and craft of Mungiu ("4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" and "Tales From the Golden Age") is too accomplished to be dismissed. But for all the arresting imagery and intensity on display here, there doesn't seem to be a point to this very long film beyond a very obvious one: showing just how terribly stupid and destructive belief can be when not underpinned by some measure of reason.